TERRY “TEX” CURRAN

Kalgoorlie has lost one of its characters and finest musicians with the death last week of Terry “Tex” Curran, one of the original members of the popular Bryan Dennis and the Country Club band.

Curran was the lead guitarist in the band, which was fronted by Dennis Bryant , who is much better known as comedy singer Kevin “Bloody” Wilson.

As a teenager Curran started performing in pubs at just 16, when his father had to accompany him to the gig, and he was cutting hair from the age of 14 and worked as a barber in Kalgoorlie for more than 40 years.

Wilson, Curran, Terry Carlsson and Graeme Bignell became lifelong friends as they carved out music careers and reputations through the pubs and clubs of the Goldfields and Esperance.

Previously known as the Alley Cats, Wilson said Curran joined the band in 1968 expanding it to a four-piece group which worked the flourishing pub circuit.

Wilson said they played regular gigs at Boulder’s Grand Hotel Hotel and the former Commercial Hotel. The four band members, who remained lifelong friends, got together just weeks before Curran’s death.

“One of the things we all agreed on when we caught up a week ago, was that whenever we left home for a gig we were in for a good time,” Wilson recalled this week when asked to reflect on his bandmate’s life.

“There was so much good humour. But he was definitely one of the finest pop guitarists to come out of the Goldfields.”

Curran came to the group in the late 1960s and joined the band in 1968 as lead guitarist.

“He always wanted to be a musician and practised a lot as a kid. But his first chance to play was with an Italian guy playing a piano accordion, so his first chance was playing Italian music. But when we got together we all brought something different to the band,” Wilson said.

“I first hooked up with Tex in 1967 and he joined the band the following year.

“We would have played together for at least 10 years.”

Wilson said the group were busy four to five nights a week throughout the 1970s doing balls, cabarets, the occasional wedding and a regular gig with local football clubs called the Sunday Morning Sick Parade.

He also said the band regularly played the annual Royal Flying Doctor Ball, often held in more remote towns like Leonora.

Every Easter the band, along with their wives and growing flock of children, would head to Esperance and play the Pier Hotel and enjoy a beach break at the end of summer.

“The four of us, Graeme, Tex and Terry Carlsson, were basically like brothers,” Wilson said.

“It was a real family thing, we got married around the same time and we had kids around the same time, who all grew up together.”

Curran also shared his love of music, teaching guitar and vocals to students for several years at the Eastern Districts High School and also taught guitar to Aboriginal children in a separate program.

His daughter Julie Sartori said Tex was a proud father of a “Brady Bunch” family.

He had three children, Wayne, Julie and Tony with first wife Carol, became a father to his second wife Judy’s two daughters Sonia and Clare, and the couple had two sons of their own, Jamie and Bradley.

In 1995 Tex and Judy acted as “house parents” at a refurbished Isolated Children’s Hostel, which catered for students from remote pastoral leases and mine sites.

Brave till the very end, Curran, who lost part of a lung to cancer 30 years ago, continued to perform until about five months before his death.

And he organised his own funeral, specifically choosing his own music.

Back in 2008Tex and Judy moved to Perth due to his failing health.

On his departure he told the Kalgoorlie Miner: “It certainly has come on a bit sudden. There’s a lot of sadness but you have to be positive. Music has been really good to me and the town as well. It’s a marvellous place.

“I’ve been here all my life. I always thought I would be one of those old blokes that sit on the seats in Hannan Street and watch the world go by.”

Curran leaves an extended family of seven children and first wife Carol.

His funeral, a cremation service, will be held at Pinnaroo Valley Cemetery at 2pm on Friday, August 11. Curran asked Wilson to do a eulogy and the family want people to celebrate his life, rather than mourn his loss.